A 102-candle salute for a retired Marine

Monday

Jul 31, 2017 at 5:51 PMJul 31, 2017 at 7:47 PM

Lori Gilbert Record Staff Writer @LoriGRecord

STOCKTON — Except for the walker, William White’s entry into the lounge of Brookdale Senior Living Center probably wasn’t much different from the way he strode through the community to recruit young men or landed on Iowa Jima and then served in Korea.

It was White’s 102nd birthday, and he still cuts a dashing figure in his Marine Corps uniform, which has been retired since 1964.

Showing no real signs of his years, White celebrated the milestone Monday by sharing stories of his life, singing, and joking with a crowd of nearly 50 well-wishers.

The celebration, organized by Brookdale staff and friends, included members of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars and Stockton Marine Corps Club. The Stockton Portsmen were there to lead the singing of “God Bless America” and “Happy Birthday.”

When his friend Marie Larson took to the piano to play the Marine Corps hymn, everyone joined in the singing. At least for the first verse.

After that, White was on his own to sing the second and third verses.

“When I first went to boot camp they taught us all three verses,” White explained.

That was in 1934. He’d tried to join the Marine Corps in 1933 after he graduated from high school in St. Louis, but he was turned down.

Instead, he spent a year working on Boulder Dam.

“I earned $4 a day,” White said. “It was very interesting and very hard work."

He shrugs off his very minor role in the engineering feat of Boulder Dam. He was only there a year, he said, because in 1934 he was accepted by the Marines.

White served aboard the USS Colorado battleship and then in Shanghai, China, and was a recruiter for the Marines when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He was forced to stay in that position for another year, but after attending parachute school was assigned to a combat training unit in Hawaii.

His unit was shipped to Iwo Jima and just about the time the American flag was being raised on Mt. Suribachi for Joe Rosenthal’s immortal picture at 11:15 a.m. on Feb. 23, 1945, White was landing on the island to join the fight.

Eight days later, on March 3, the 11th anniversary of his having joined the Marines, White was injured and sent back to the states for treatment.

The Purple Heart he earned on Iwo Jima is one of the dozen medals he wears on his chest, the others awarded for different missions.

In his room is a framed collection of his other medals, along with portraits of himself as a young recruit and a handsome officer. And, a picture of the flag on Iwo Jima.

White served during Korea, although not in combat, and finished his time at the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, retiring as a major in 1964.

He went to work for the Huntington Beach Police Department and moved to Stockton 12 years ago to be nearer his two daughters.

He was born in Long Beach as Billy Eric Cederberg, in 1915.

He changed his name because when he was in high school, the other boys called him Billy the Kid, and he didn’t like that.

His father had died when he was 6 and when his mother remarried, he took her new name, White, and changed Billy to William.

Although he didn’t know his father long, the man had an impact on William Cederberg White.

While White's father was working in South America as a mining engineer, a revolution broke out. The Marines were sent to help restore order and one night, White's father drove out on patrol. The Marines stopped him, concerned for his welfare.

“He didn’t tell them the leader of the revolution was his best friend,” White said.

Maybe, he noted, that’s why he wanted to be a Marine.

His family — he married three times, his second marriage produced his two daughters and his third lasted 40 years — and the Marines dominate the memorabilia in his life.

On one wall are three framed panels of his genealogy, which represents 30 years of his work that traced the Swedish Cederberg family’s arrival in the U.S. to 1620.

The other walls bear Marine memorabilia.

“Semper Fi” is the last thing he says at night, White said.

He isn’t too philosophical about his years of service and continued bearing as a Marine.